Friday, October 7, 2011

OK, so not the most pressing social issue. A diversion nonetheless. In any event, several readers — via email or the comments — have asked for recommendations for Chinese takeout/delivery. This question came up in the comments here ... and here ...

Seems like a lot of favorites have closed through the years. Like Mee's Noodle Shop and Grill on First Avenue. I liked Bamboo House on Second Avenue at Sixth Street. Until it closed about, what, five, six years ago?

China Town on Houston was OK the few times that I tried it... (Remember a few years ago when the 'N' fell off — China Tow?)

What about Happy Wok on Avenue C? The DOH recently paid them a visit. (Violations included "Duties of an officer of the Department interfered with or obstructed.") Let's just say that they're back open (only 4 violation points now!) ...

First off thank you Grieve for starting this most excellent thread. Full disclosure - I don't eat meat. That being said,I f*cking love China Wok on Ave D (formerly new golden). Seriously. Try their apple sticks - to die for.Also the place on Avenue C near ten-eleven, forget what it's called.The place on B and 3rd I do NOT like.Thanks for the recommendations for the places on St. Marks!

Riceton on 14th is a decent delivery option, though they recently changed their dumplings. A suprise given the ridiculous name. otherwise there's a serious lack of good American Chinese food around here - traditional chinese is fine, but sometimes you just need some general tso's chicken.

Ick, Grand Sichuan is so overrated. I've scoured the area and have yet to find a better chinese take out place than the China Star on 1st Ave between St Marks and 9th St. Huge portions and their combination platters for lunch and dinner cannot be beat.

"Xi'an Famous Foods on St. Marks is really good, but it's take out only. " - Anonymous

Totally agree. I finally stopped by there this week. Super flavorful, fresh ingredients. The do have a small space for dining in, but if you're not into that or takeout, they also have a sign suggesting bars nearby where you can take it (including Holiday and WCOU Radio).

the decent chinese restaurants that were around here are gone and the ones close by used to be btter and now are not so hot (the cottage, charley mom's).the dumpling house on st. marks has good dumplings but it is more of a fast-food place.fat dumpling is awful and i think a health hazard.unfortunately you have to go to chinatown for good chinese food - and a lot of the old-time good places there also have closed.

Original Yummy House griever here. So far I've tried Red House on 14th street--not terrible, but still kind of cheapy tasting. The Cottage, suggested by my GF, was considerably better and for the moment is my go-to delivery option. (Grand Sichuan is nice and all but good old fashioned American Chinese is not really their forte) What was great about the original Yummy House was that the ingredients were noticeably better quality and the dishes less greasy and gristly than your typical gringo Chinese take-out. More refined if you will. It is *sorely* missed. By the way, what the fuck really happened to the restaurant? Never got any more information than vague reports of plumbing issues. One of these days I ought to storm into the Plumpy Dumpling, climb up on the counter and demand some fucking answers once and for all.

Anyone voting for Grand Sichuan have any recommendations on what to get there? For my first time, I decided to go simple with some General Tso's, thinking that'd be almost impossible to screw up. What I got was as dry and tough as beef jerky (had to use a steak knife to cut through it), and the broccoli was like rubber. Wondering what could be good there if something so much a staple of American Chinese was so bad. Thanks.

just to be clear, before someone goes huffing and puffing about it, my comment was satirical

as per the topic on this thread, a lot of affordable chinese food takeouts have disappeared, only a very few remain, scattered throughout the ev, even a few commenters have gone out of the neighborhood such as chinatown and the west side. but the one that are sprouting up in the ev are high-end chinese food restos or bars, catering to the b&ters, tourists, and the riches

i mostly get my chinese food from chinatown, it's a few minutes walk but woth it, and when winter and rainy days come along and in need for delivery, i get it from the china star

@Jeremy - If you like spicy stuff, the Gui Zhou chicken is great. Basically, anything not on the American Chinese side of the menu is pretty good, although there was a period about two years ago where everything seemed to be prepared with an extra cup of corn starch.

A new place just opened on 2nd Avenue & 6th Street...Hot Kitchen or something similar...haven't tried it yet, but hope it's good. There is a surprising lack of Chinese restaurants in the East Village, considering the EV restaurant density in general....So many Thai, Indian, Italian, etc, places, but very few Chinese. The only option is that communist one on St Mark's, but I won't be supporting Maoists.

Chang Wang Restaurant on Hester Street (the southeast corner of Hester Street and Allen Street). It's a worker restaurant. You can eat in for $4 or less which gets you an entree over rice, bowl of soup and cup of tea.

Hot Kitchen! Good cheap lunch specials there too. Grand Sichuan though it's gotten pricey. I used to go to Plump Dumpling purely out of convenience (and instantaneous delivery times) but the food is mediocre and the always overcharge. Even the prices on the giant posted menu are wrong ("old menu" they say if you notice that they charged more than the posted price...)

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